Iowa State University

Task Force for Information Sciences and Technology

Information Sciences and Technology at Iowa State
University

Vision and Directions for Scholarship,
Learning, and Engagement

25 February 2000

Page 1

Peter M. Siegel, Information Sciences Report Final Draft 000224.doc, 2/25/00 12:41 PM

Page 1

Executive Summary

Information Sciences and Technology (IST) denotes the fundamental research that occurs within computer science and computer engineering and the application of that research to all academic disciplines, as well as the use of computing and electronic communications technologies in all areas of human endeavor. By its nature, IST promotes multi-disciplinary interactions and has become a critical component of discovery in a wide range of fields spanning the breadth of science and engineering.

Even so, the greatest opportunities remain untapped. For example, it is clear that:

  • By providing efficient tools for locating and synthesizing data, the World-Wide Web will become as important to the well-being and economic development of society as reliable power and water distribution systems are today.
  • Understanding and making use of the vast amounts of data that are becoming available will require new information display and interpretation technologies that partially or completely automate the process of data analysis.
  • This will require continued improvements in computing power and capabilities that will be achieved via advances in networking technology, self-configuring hardware, and software that self-organizes out of available components on a network.
  • We have only begun to exploit the potential of the web and other distributed technologies to enhance teaching and learning and to explore radically new kinds of learning environments.
  • Enabling students, citizens and scholars to benefit from these advances will require a better understanding of how we interact with technology. We must learn how people turn images and symbols on their computer screens into ideas.
  • Web-based training and retraining will become a major part of the education sector. Leaders that emerge today will dominate the web-enabled, life-long learning sector.

Although IST's importance to society as a whole has grown dramatically over the past several years, the rate of change in this technology will continue to grow in ways that challenge our ability to adapt. For example, it has been predicted that computers with the processing power and memory of the human brain will be available within a decade[1]. The implications of this are staggering. Hence, while the promise of IST is clear, a great deal of fundamental research will be required to determine how it may best be applied for the betterment of the human condition.

This past year, the U.S. President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) submitted a report emphasizing that "information technology will be one of the key factors driving progress in the 21st century— it will transform the way we live, learn, work, and play." The report identifies those research areas within IST that need to be federal priorities, and emphasizes the need for long-term, multidisciplinary research. More recently, the National Science Foundation (with substantial Congressional support) has announced its Information Technology Research initiative that identifies eight major areas for sustained research funding.

Based on our analysis of the developing national research priorities, the Information Sciences and Technology Task Force at Iowa State University has identified six major leadership areas:

  • Information Systems and Management
/
  • Human-Computer Interfaces

  • Advanced Computational Science
/
  • Educational, Social, and Economic Impact of IST

  • Software
/
  • Information Infrastructure

For each of these areas we identified its national priority, its current strength at Iowa State University, and its recommended priority in an IST initiative at Iowa State University. While not definitive, this process established that Iowa State University has a solid core of excellence upon which to build a successful IST initiative. Our vision for this IST initiative derives from two simple insights:

  • IST must be integrated into research and teaching in all fields, and
  • IST is a bona fide field of study in its own right and of growing importance.

The essential components of this vision include:

  • Peer Leadership, nurturing a bottom-up, self-organizing multidisciplinary web of faculty partnerships and formal research linkages,
  • An Entrepreneurial Approach, that encourages innovative, moderate-to-high risk research approaches,
  • Assessment of Clear Outcomes, whereby formal measures of success in the medium term ensure an ever-strengthening program,
  • The Integration of Research and Learning at the Graduate and Undergraduate Levels, strengthening linkages between research and our educational programs.
  • Clear Priorities and Incentives, ensuring that we move from less viable areas to those that increase the national stature of Iowa State in IST, and finally,
  • A Strategy to Ensure Long-Term Cultural Change at Iowa State, leading to the substantive integration of IST into every area of scholarship, education, and community engagement.

Based upon our analysis of current strengths and future opportunities, our over-arching recommendation is that Iowa State University should embark on an IST initiative that builds upon its traditional strengths and mission as Iowa’s land-grant university of science and technology. This initiative should include:

  1. The creation of an Institute for Information Sciences and Technology that will function synergistically with existing administrative structures. This institute should have sufficient institutional priority to ensure that it will develop into a nationally competitive unit.
  2. A sustained priority to building multidisciplinary collaborations that depend upon IST and to integrating IST into research and teaching in every area of study.
  3. A systematic, long-term commitment to building Iowa State University’s programs in computer science and computer engineering broadly to nationally competitive levels, as well as strengthening other closely allied disciplines.
  4. An integrated, long-term strategic plan and implementation process to improve the university’s information infrastructure—academic, instructional, and administrative technologies and services— for ISU faculty, students, and staff.

The body of this report provides additional detailed recommendations for the development of the proposed IST initiative.

Page 1

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Summary of Recommendations

Introduction

Charge to the Task Force

The Task Force Members

National Trends in Information Sciences and Technology

Table 1: PITAC Report: Federal Research Priorities in Information Technologies

The Role of Iowa State University

Multidisciplinary Excellence is a Priority for Iowa State

Responding to the Trend Towards Globalization

Distributed Learning: A Priority for Iowa State

Building on Leadership in Extension

Terminology: Information Sciences and Technology

Definition of Information Sciences and Technology (IST)

The Domain of Information Sciences and Technology (IST)

National Priorities: Major Leadership Areas

Information Systems and Management

Advanced Computational Science

Software Design and Complex Systems

Human-Computer Interface

Educational, Social, and Economic Impact of IST

Information Infrastructure: Computing and Communications Technologies and Services

Critical Programs at Iowa State: Building on our Strengths

A Vision for Information Sciences and Technology at Iowa State University

All disciplines will integrate IST into research and teaching

IST will be a bona fide field of study

General Recommendations: An Institute for Information Sciences and Technology

Diagram 1: Example Impact Areas of Information Sciences and Technology

Vision Components for a Leadership Program in IST

Key Components

Peer Leadership

Recommendations: Building Multidisciplinary Collaborations

Priorities and Incentives

Creating A Sustainable Initiative

Recommendations: Interdisciplinary Educational Initiatives

Information Science Curriculum Issues

Recommendations: Core Research Emphases

Building Programs in Computer Science and Computer Engineering

Open Source

Computational Science and Engineering

Recommendations: Core Information Infrastructure

Appendices

Appendix A: Leadership Areas for Information Sciences and Technology

Table 2: IST Leadership Areas and Program Emphases for Iowa State University

Appendix B: Information Science Groups and Resources at Iowa State

Page 1

Summary of Recommendations

Each of the following recommendations is developed within the body of the report, based on the consensus of the task force. Recommendations are summarized here for convenience, but are best understood within context.

Recommendation 1: That Iowa State University move to create an Institute for Information Sciences and Technology that would work synergistically with the existing college and department structure.

Recommendation 2: That Iowa State University make it a sustained long-term priority to build multidisciplinary collaborations involving Information Sciences and Technology, including hiring faculty with national recognition in IST-related disciplines and providing incentives to existing faculty to participate strongly in such collaborations and to integrate IST approaches into their research and teaching.

Recommendation 3: That Iowa State make a systematic, long-term commitment to building its programs in computer science and computer engineering broadly to nationally competitive levels, as well as strengthening other closely allied disciplines.

Recommendation 4: That in concert with the creation of the Institute for IST, Iowa State University immediately develop an integrated, long-term strategic plan and implementation process to improve the university’s information infrastructure—academic, instructional, and administrative technologies and services— for ISU faculty and staff.

Page 1

Information Sciences and Technology at Iowa State University

Introduction

“Chance favors only the prepared mind.”Louis Pasteur

Charge to the Task Force

On August 26, 1999, Vice Provost for Research, Patricia B. Swan, along with colleagues[2] representing the colleges, established a task force to create a vision for Iowa State’s future in research and graduate education related to the Information Sciences and Technology. The charge to the task force was:

1)To consider the directions which the Information Sciences and Information Technology are apt to take in the next few years and to identify associated areas in which Iowa State University has current areas of strength.

2)Based on these considerations, to describe a vision whereby Iowa State University might capitalize on existing opportunities in order to obtain significant national visibility in certain key aspects of the development of Information Sciences and Technology within the next five to ten years.

3)To realize this vision, to describe the expertise needed within the faculty and types of research and graduate education programs that Iowa State should have, as well as major technology (equipment) that would have to be updated or acquired for these programs.

The task force was initially asked not to consider the amount or source of funding needed, nor ways in which the programs might be organized except in the most generic terms.

We use the terms scholarship, learning, and engagement in the title of this report[3]. Scholarship entails “innovation-encompassing research, creative activities, teaching, and extensional/professional practice”; while our emphasis is research, leadership in all aspects of scholarship is essential to our success. Learning, in the context of this report, starts with superior graduate education, but also includes the role of research, outreach, and other opportunities for scholarship and enrichment in educating our students. Just as important, it is through effective engagement that we deploy our knowledge and expertise towards solving problems of importance to Iowa, the nation, and the world. This is achieved in several ways: indirectly through superior scholarship, directly through partnership and new forms of outreach, and most importantly, by ensuring that our students go out to become productive members of the community.

The Task Force Members

Peter M. Siegel, Academic Information Technology, Chair

Daniel Ashlock, Mathematics

Carolina Cruz-Neira, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Steven M. LaValle, Computer Science

John Miranowski, Economics

Patrick S. Schnable, Agronomy

Arun Somani, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Page 1

Information Sciences and Technology at Iowa State University

National Trends in Information Sciences and Technology

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” H.G. Wells

In February of 1999, the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) submitted its report to the President of the United States. The report[4], “Information Technology Research: Investing In Our Future”, outlined the vision of its distinguished membership:

Information Technology will be one of the key factors driving progress in the 21st century— it will transform the way we live, learn, work, and play. Advances in computing and communications technology will create a new infrastructure for business, scientific research, and social interaction. This expanding infrastructure will provide us with new tools for communicating throughout the world and for acquiring knowledge and insight from information. Information technology will help us understand how we affect the natural environment and how best to protect it. It will provide a vehicle for economic growth. Information technology will make the workplace more rewarding, improve the quality of health care, and make government more responsive and accessible to the needs of our citizens (PITAC, p.1).

The report goes on to identify five priorities for research, noting a current overemphasis on near-term problems and emphasizing the need for long-term information technology research and development (p. 3). These priorities are summarized in Table 1. While federal directions should not blindly dictate the directions of Iowa State, this report is remarkable in representing broad leadership in the academic community and the federal research enterprise, including strong representation from the scientific disciplines broadly. The National Science Foundation has recently announced a new, Congressionally-supported, initiative in Information Technology Research[5] that closely follows the PITAC blueprint[6], with sponsorship from all major directorates, including Biological Sciences, Engineering, Education and Human Resources, and Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering.

Table 1: PITAC Report: Federal Research Priorities in Information Technologies[7]

Priority Areas / Emphases
Software Issues / software development; human-computer interfaces and interaction; information capture, management, and communication
Scalable Information Infrastructure / the behavior of our global-scale network; the physics of the network, including technologies; scaling the network; middleware that enables large-scale systems; large-scale applications and the scalable services they require; and testbeds for enabling advanced research in Information Technologies
High-end Computing / innovative technologies and architectures; performance improvements; balanced software and hardware strategies; acquisition of high-end computing systems
Socioeconomic Impact / information technology literacy, access and research capabilities; policy issues arising from information technology; socioeconomic issues of information technology; participation of women and underrepresented minorities; removing geographic and other barriers to access and use of information technology; accelerating the use of and education about information technology at all levels from K-12 to lifelong learning; strengthen the use of information technology in education
Management and Implementation of Federal Information Technology Research / research of broader scope, longer duration, which is carried out in teams; collaborations with applications that drive information technology research; expeditions into 21st century technologies; Enabling Technology Centers that will drive research by examination of critical application areas

The Role of Iowa State University

Iowa State has a strong and unique role to play in the unfolding national Information Sciences revolution. We recognize that:

  • 60% of all jobs by 2010 will be Information Technology-related[8];
  • about one-third of economic growth in the United States since 1992 has been in computing and information technology[9];
  • Moore’s Law (of Computational Power) is expected to hold over the next ten to twenty years, resulting in a doubling of computing and communications power every twenty-four months at fixed cost[10].

Multidisciplinary Excellence is a Priority for Iowa State

Iowa State University is Iowa’s land-grant institution, with a strong, historic emphasis on excellence in teaching, engagement (or outreach), and research. Given these initial strengths, Iowa State has the potential to develop and maintain a premier research program in both the fundamental aspects of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and their application to a wide range of key applications, including many in the Plant Sciences, Engineering, Materials Science, and Education. Building on this type of multidisciplinary excellence, we have a unique role to play in bringing the benefits of Information Sciences Research into the graduate and undergraduate learning processes. This must be done both by bringing students, graduate and undergraduate, into the multidisciplinary research process and within the context of graduate and undergraduate curricula. Building on existing strengths, adding a strong multidisciplinary focus in the Information Sciences is essential to our ability to compete at NSF, NASA, DOE, USDA, DARPA, and other agencies; federal partnerships, exemplified by the university partnership with the Ames Laboratory (DOE), are an existing strength we must exploit.

Responding to the Trend Towards Globalization

As if this were not challenge enough, the trend towards globalization, itself driven by the impact of Information Technologies, demands significant response from the academic community; new opportunities and challenges arise as society, groups, and individuals struggle to keep up with this pace of globalization. Such a response will take the form of new disciplines and priority research areas in almost every field of study. Notably, the humanities and social sciences are critical, because they will help us understand the nature of this technological change, as well as communicate our understanding to policy makers, as well as the public at large. Surprisingly, the role of these fields in understanding IST has been underemphasized both at Iowa State and nationally[11]; more study is needed to properly articulate the role these areas should play within an IST program at Iowa State, but it will be significant. Business will be another enormously important contributor to our understanding of IST. This task force strongly recommends that the Iowa State College of Business be invited to be an active participant in additional planning for an IST initiative.